JOIN USShooter Prakash Nanjappa, shuttler D Guruprasad and long jumper M Arshad are among the 15 sportspersons who will be presented with the Ekalavya awards for outstanding achievements on Thursday.
The Minister for Sports and Youth Service, Abhay Chandra Jain, announced the names of award-winners at a press conference here on Wednesday. Besides the 15, four senior sportspersons will be honoured with life-time awards while ten athletes have been chosen for the first-ever Karnataka Kreeda Ratna award, instituted to boost rural sports.
Other winners of the Ekalavya are Navneet PU (basketball), Shodhan Kumar Rai (bodybuilding), Yashas D (chess), Lokesh M (cycling), Vishal Kumar R (football), Somanna KM (hockey), Nikshep BR (tennis), Anand Kumar B (para badminton), Akshata Pujarthi (powerlifting), Ashwin Menon (swimming), Sanoj VR (volleyball) and Prema H (wrestling).
The award includes a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh and a memento.
Boxing coach G Manoharan, Mani (Kabaddi), Mohd Dada Peer (football) and Sumitra Kumar M (bodybuilding) have been chosen for life-time awards and will receive Rs 1.5 lakh along with a memento.
In addition to the above mentioned awards, the minister also announced the Karnataka Kreeda Ratna, an award instituted to honour to the achievements of sports personalities in rural sports.
Santosh Naik (atya patya), Shruthi AR (ball badminton), Kumar S Jagadev, Vinay Kumar KH (kho-kho), Maruti Y (mallakhamb), Aishwarya M (mud wrestling), Mohd Aakhib (throw ball), Palimaru Devendra (kambala), Gopalan K (swimming with his feet tied) and Nadananda Swami (jala stambhana) will be the recipients of the first ever Kreeda Ratna on Thursday. The award includes a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and a memento.
The State will also honour the athletes who won laurels at the recent Asian Games and Para Asian Games. The gold medal winners at Incheon, which include V R Raghunath, SV Sunil, Nikkin Thimmaiah (men’s hockey), Rajaguru Subramanian (men’s kabaddi), Sushmita Pawar and Jayanthi Lakshman (women’s kabaddi), will receive a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh, while the silver medal winner Vikas Gowda will receive Rs 15 lakh.
The bronze medal winning duo of Prakash Nanjappa (shooting) and Ashwini Ponnappa (badminton) will see their wallet get heavier by Rs 8 lakh. MR Poovamma, who won a gold in women’s 4x400M relay and a bronze in the women’s 400M will be richer by Rs 33 lakh.
Silver medal winning para athlete Girisha H N (Men’s high jump) will receive Rs 15 lakh, while bronze medal winners Shavaad Jedikere Mohd Ali (men's 800M — blind category) and Farman Basha (powerlifting) will receive Rs 8 lakh. Sharath Gayakwad, who pocketed six medals, the highest by an Indian athlete at the Games, will get Rs 55 lakh.
The minister also stated the government will not be felicitating two members of the women’s kabaddi team — Tejaswini Bai and Mamata Poojari — even though they hail from Karnataka as they no longer represent the State in any competitive tournament.
“The athletes no longer represent the state in any tournaments as they play on behalf of their employers South Western Railways. Due to this reason the government has decided that the players will not be felicitated by the State on Thursday,” he said.